The update to Best of taarab was sent to me by Pauly Becquart, residing in Tanzania.
He writes: "The cassette contains tracks from 4 volumes of "Best of Taarab" published earlier by Melodica, Nairobi.
Song B6 is named "Walimwengu wanaina" and song B7 is "Khiyana"; both are from Vol. 3 (see cover).

The infos I got at Melodica while buying these cassettes more than 20 years ago is that at the base the band is Black Star Musical Club with Kibwana Saidi and Sharmila at vocals.

Black Star Musical Club is a band originating from Tanga, Tanzania. At the time of these songs it was very difficult for Tanzanian band to travel for political reasons. Many bands recording in Kenya didn't want their name published as they didn't want to get into trouble in Tanzania. For this reason many records are published under wacky names (e.g. 'Ewe Mola' and 'Karibu ramadhani' published by Melodica on 7'' single on label Halal QM 001A under the name Yahoos Band & Hafusa Abbasi and also on the Vol. 4 of Best of Taarab under 'no name' ...)
(Tanzania never got any vinyl production up to now, perhaps this last couple of years because of the uprising of music production in Tz, but I don't think so, never had heard while still in contact with Tz musicians; turntable is a very very rare tool in Tz).

Anyway all tracks on these cassette are from Tanga's original Musical Clubs who had their own taarab style.
Band members recording are rarely the original members. To credit theses cassettes to Black Star Musical Club is not an error nor a big sin."

A flac version of this great cassette can be found here, but only until June 1, 2017: CS KSS 117. The updated mp3 version can be found with the original post.

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After more than 23 years of making radio programmes I am seeking new ways to share my passion for African and Latin music. My intentions are 100% non-commercial.
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